An alternate juror in the Diddy case says all the evidence about baby oil didn’t help the prosecution’s case in the end, but he thinks the point was to paint the defendant as a hard-core criminal freak.

George — he asked us not to use his last name — was not in the jury deliberation room, but he was front and center for every second of the trial. He noted the defense mocked prosecutors over the baby oil evidence, with Marc Agnifilo sarcastically telling jurors their streets were safer after the feds spent all that time and money seizing 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

As for the freak-off videos, that may have backfired for prosecutors. George says everything he saw — from Cassie and “Jane” rubbing baby oil over a sex worker to hardcore sex — looked consensual.

As for prosecutors trying to tie Diddy to the Molotov cocktail thrown inside Kid Cudi‘s car — he says prosecutors didn’t prove it. Ditto for the alleged Capricorn Clark kidnapping.

Interesting … Agnifilo said during closing if taking someone to a warehouse and keeping them there from 9 to 5 is kidnapping … then jurors were themselves kidnap victims because they were forced to stay at the courthouse for that same time period.

As you know, Diddy was found not guilty of the most serious crimes — racketeering and sex trafficking — but guilty on 2 counts of transporting a sex worker across state lines. It was a major loss/embarrassment for prosecutors.

Prosecutors are expected to ask the judge to sentence Diddy to around 4 years in prison, but there’s a good chance — based on sentencing guidelines — he will end up serving less than 2 years (and possibly closer to 1) behind bars.